SKETCH OF MODERN AGRICULTURE 59 



separated geographically by the formation of the North Sea, it 

 is impossible to say. It is probable that the Herefords were built 

 up by the process of careful breeding and selection of cattle 

 from several different breeds. There are some points of resem- 

 blance between the Herefords and the Normans, and, more 

 remotely, between these and certain German breeds, but whether 

 there is any historical connection it is impossible at this distant 

 time to say. It used to be claimed that there were importations 

 from Normandy, and Curtler states that Lord Scudamore, in the 

 latter half of the seventeenth century, introduced red cows with 

 white faces from Flanders. Why such unlike breeds as the 

 Devons, the Jerseys, the Bretons, the Kerrys (which latter three 

 are very much alike except as to color), and the Ayrshire should 

 be grouped together under the same race it is difficult to say, 

 except that they occupy neighboring counties and are all preco- 

 cious milkers except the Devons, which have been bred prima- 

 rily for beef and for working oxen, although Devon cows, like 

 most of the others of this group, give very rich milk. 



Bakewell and the Longhorns. Whatever may have been the 

 original breeds of English cattle, and however the modern breeds 

 ma) be interrelated, it is well known that there was in the Mid- 

 land counties, in the middle of the eighteenth century, a breed, 

 more or less well established, known as the Longhorns. Robert 

 Bakewell, the first great English breeder, began working with 

 this breed about 1775. Though he wrought notable results, 

 they were soon afterwards eclipsed by the still more remarkable 

 results achieved by the brothers Charles and Robert Colling with 

 the Durhams, or Shorthorns, as they came to be called in contra- 

 distinction to the Longhorns. This was not at all to the discredit 

 of Bakewell or his methods, the undoubted fact being that the 

 Col lings had a better breed of cattle to work upon. 



Bakewell's greatest success as a breeder was with sheep. Even 

 less is known regarding the original breeds of sheep than of 



